James Gurney

This daily weblog by Dinotopia creator James Gurney is for illustrators, plein-air painters, sketchers, comic artists, animators, art students, and writers. You'll find practical studio tips, insights into the making of the Dinotopia books, and first-hand reports from art schools and museums.

CG Art

Contact

or by email:gurneyjourney (at) gmail.comSorry, I can't give personal art advice or portfolio reviews. If you can, it's best to ask art questions in the blog comments.

Permissions

All images and text are copyright 2015 James Gurney and/or their respective owners. Dinotopia is a registered trademark of James Gurney. For use of text or images in traditional print media or for any commercial licensing rights, please email me for permission.

However, you can quote images or text without asking permission on your educational or non-commercial blog, website, or Facebook page as long as you give me credit and provide a link back. Students and teachers can also quote images or text for their non-commercial school activity. It's also OK to do an artistic copy of my paintings as a study exercise without asking permission.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

With the thermometer over 50 degrees and the snow rapidly melting, Jeanette and I headed over to the nearby town of Rhinecliff today to paint a streetscape. In Rhinecliff, everyone gets their mail at the Post Office, so a lot of people walked by with their little kids, and you could hear the faraway sounds of hammers and radial saws.

Here's the pochade box, with what's left of the colors: ultra blue, white, naples yellow, cadmium yellow light, burnt sienna, burnt umber, and Winsor red. Because the whole scene consisted mainly of warm and cool greys, I premixed a warm string and cool string in the center of the mixing surface and worked mostly from those colors.

This isn't relevant to your topic, I apologize. I wanted to ask: in Journey to Chandara, you have a picture of a feather -- a blackish feather with many white spots. I found the same feather years ago in a park here in British Columbia and have never been able to identify it. Do you know what bird it comes from?

Lovely streetscape. I like the way you paint things-as-they-are and include phone lines and road signs. I know your 90 degree rule helps you paint scenes that normally would not get a second look. Painting them encourages and rewards that second look.

I've often wondered if people would want to buy paintings like the one you did today in Rhinecliff. If someone like you showed up at my door offering to do an hour's oil sketch of my house for, gee, I don't know, $250, I doubt I'd turn him down. A painter's busking. Do people do that?